-by Marlene Dotterer

With the worst of the pandemic behind us (we hope), Pleasant Hill CERT held our first in-person course this year. On October 29, the class went through the required field exercise for hands-on application of what they learned through the 8-week course.

Gathering in the classroom before exercise starts

Field exercises are always a bewildering mix of nerves, responsibility, and fun. You know it’s not real but understand that it represents a possible reality when someone’s life might literally be in your hands. You are certain you won’t remember everything you were taught and are surprised at how the procedures and treatments you learned in class look drastically different in flesh-and-blood (moulage, actually) 3-D.

This year’s exercise was held at the Contra Costa Fire Protection District Training Center on Treat Blvd. The class was divided into three teams, each team taking a turn at one of three training areas: Size-up/Search and Rescue, Medical Head-to-Toe exam, and Communications.

Victims were bravely and hilariously played by Boy Scout Troop 221, who vied for the worst injury and weirdest wig.

THE EXERCISES

Head to Toe Assessment

-Led by Maggie Panontin-Young

“I joined CERT to meet others in the community and to be able to help out during a disaster.” – Lisa Hobson, 2022 CERT Graduate

In a disaster, it might happen that injured people need to be cared for at a CERT Medical Tent, until transport to a hospital is possible. CERT staff are not medical practitioners and we do not provide treatment. We do provide basic first aid and continued assessment. Each patient is given a head-to-toe exam every 15 minutes. We check for initial and on-going changes in condition: RPM (Respiration, Profusion, and Mental status) and areas of pain, tenderness, swelling, movement.

Each team had a turn at the medical tent, with each team member performing an assessment or acting as a scribe to document the findings. Before finishing the exercise, all the trainees took turns practicing the technique to lift a patient.

Communications

Led by Jim Hirahara, Carol Reade, and Steve Donovan

I greatly appreciate the work done by the people running the CERT program.  Jim Bonato and his team are all donating their time in order to keep our communities safer and better organized in case of a severe emergency. The program is well run and organized. – Matt Gowdy, 2022 CERT Graduate

Search and Rescue (SAR) Teams must know how to radio for help when it’s needed. We are trained to handle most situations in-situ, but sometimes, you just need the big guns. Think: a roaring housefire, broken water-main (or water storage tank!), multiple vehicle crash with severe injuries. That’s when we need familiarity with radios and how to speak and send a message.

At the field exercise, each graduating team took a turn on Communications. A CERT leader took the role of Incident Command Radio Post, waiting to handle incoming messages

Meanwhile our trainees were given scenarios with various levels of emergency, injury, or damage. The teams had to decide and document how they would handle the scenario and whether they needed to radio for help.

If they decided help was needed, they had to:

  • Write a draft message that is clear and succinct, 25 words or less
  • Be able to use the phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie…) to spell difficult street names.
  • Know how to use the radio and standard radio procedures such as:
    • Press the transmit button before speaking
    • Identify who you are calling (Area ICP)
    • identify yourself (SAR Team #1)
    • Let go of the transmit button and wait for a response.

These procedures continue throughout the call.

For CERT volunteers who have never used a radio or walkie-talkie, this can be a real challenge. We practice radio skills frequently.

Size-up, Search-and-Rescue

-Led by Mike Houston

In CERT training courses, the first goal is to train community members to prepare and take care of themselves, their families, and property. For those who continue to volunteer with CERT, Search and Rescue is the meat of the course.

“CERT emphasizes doing the greatest good for the greatest number of people. The way to do that is working as a team and the live exercises made that very clear. Great group that came together for an even better team.” – Doug Seandel, 2022 CERT Graduate

Size-Up

The Fire District’s training grounds contains a dilapidated (and grungy) two-story house, with basement and attic. This is where our training teams took turns acting as a SAR Team. The first task is to do a 360 of the building and immediate area. How much damage is apparent? Is it safe for the team to enter the building (light or moderate damage).

As our grad team circled the house, they called out “Search and Rescue! Is anyone inside?”

Eventually, they heard a response from inside. The team leader asked for information and discovered there were four children inside, with injuries and one other adult male, uninjured, but staying with his injured son, trapped in the basement.

Calling Out Survivors and Building Prep

Having determined the building was safe to enter, a team member marked a wall of the house (visible from the street) with a diagonal line (left to right) and entered the team name (CERT SAR 1) and the date/time of entry.

Armed with four rolls of triage tape in green (walking – for all those who come out when called), yellow (delayed care), red (immediate care), and black (deceased), the team leader first stood in the entrance and yelled for anyone who could walk, to come to the sound of his voice. One man came out. A green tape was tied around his arm, with a small piece of the tape going into the team leader’s pocket. This helps him keep track of victims as they are found. Instructing the man to remain on the porch with one team member (who had the radio), the rest of the team entered the building.

It was dark and filled with debris. There were stairs with no banisters. I went along as a photographer, and I was nervous. But our trainees were calm and efficient.

Finding Victims

Our trainees were nervous, but efficient. Beginning at the top of the house and working in a clockwise direction, they searched the second-floor bedrooms, bathroom, closets and cabinets, behind, under, or within furniture, looking for victims. They found two boys in a closet, performed RPM, and left them marked with yellow (delayed care) tape, again placing two pieces in the team leader’s pocket.

It’s not that straightforward though, for any of us, but especially for trainees. Our instinct is to talk to the victims, comfort them, assess and treat injuries, and get them to safety. But search-and-rescue triage does not allow for this much interaction. Our goal is the “greatest good for the greatest number.” This means no more than 30 seconds per victim: find, assess, mark with tape according to condition, and move on to the next victim.

Another point of misunderstanding came up with the first two victims. Though injured, they were alert and talking, could stand and walk. The SAR team wanted to tie them with green tape and let them go outside. This confusion is understandable, but the instructor (Mike Houston) elaborated, “Green tape is for those who come out on their own, either before we get there or when we call for people to come out if they can walk.” Since these boys did not come out when the team called, the lowest level of tape to use would be yellow. Also, since they were not in immediate danger where they were, they needed to stay put until our team could finish searching the house.

The teams passed a big test by checking all cabinets and small areas where young children could be hiding. Our victims were older than this, but we still had one hide under the kitchen. Every team found him.

We always search top to bottom, so the basement was our last destination, despite the frantic father down there, begging the team to help his son. This is another critical part of training. Our instinct to run to the person yelling the loudest, but there are two things wrong with that. One is that it breaks up both the search team and the search routine (top-to-bottom, clockwise or counter-clockwise, and stay together). The second thing is that the loudest person is not necessarily the worst injured. Those are usually the quiet ones. We could miss them if we break the routine.

At last, we made our way to the basement, with me always switching my phone from camera to flashlight. It was DARK down there and those stairs were tricky. It had occurred to me that it would be really embarrassing to get hurt and need a rescue!

Once everyone was found and brought outside, it was time to finish marking the wall of the house: the time the team exited, the number of people still inside (zero, in our case), and any hazards the team thought should be mentioned (debris for this, but other examples would be a downed electrical wire, rats, or a hole in the floor).

Graduation

Our field exercise is not a test for the class. It’s the final learning event: putting it all together, discovering their weaknesses and strengths. We all have some of each and it’s good to know where we can best help after a disaster.

We all returned to the classroom, where our graduates received their certificates. Someone found Pomp and Circumstance on their phone and played it to much laughter. We hope that many of these new CERT members volunteer to become active members of Pleasant Hill CERT.

Congratulations to all of them!

(Names are not listed in order)
Raymond Diokno, Russell Elkins, Lynette Felton, Matthew Gowdy, Kritika Prassad-Kommuri, Lisa HobsonMargaret Miller, Doug Seandel, Anthony Tindall, Ralph Mariscal